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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24537523">Clear Blue Sky</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tharry24/pseuds/Tharry24'>Tharry24</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Bi-Curiosity, Boys being oblivious, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Cute, Fluff, Gay, M/M, Multi, Post-Gaea &amp; The Second Giant War (Percy Jackson), Post-War, Romantic Getaway, deffinetly slow burn, jercy - Freeform, jiper never happened, mentions of Solangelo, mentions of depression, relationship, romantic cruise, slow burn kinda?, solangelo, the slowest burn there is</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-05-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:35:37</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,248</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24537523</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tharry24/pseuds/Tharry24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Depressed, stressed and overly obsessed (with blue food) Percy is encountered by a certain Jason Grace in the midst of his existential crisis. Has it been mentioned that Percy is also, unfortunately, single? Jason is very confident with his abilities to bring back Percy´s cheeky smile. Throw in a pointless quest for everyone´s favorite drunk god and some newly discovered feels and you get a new, fresh and bit awkward story. Just you know, two ladyless bros being very oblivious dudes.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jason Grace/Percy Jackson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>58</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1-The BAGinning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello enjoy first chapter :-*</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It started off as a wonderful day full of possibilities for both Roman and Greek camps. Because it was a sunny summer day most of the campers went on little quests or to the city, so there were only a few people around the camp. One of the people that stayed behind were Percy, since you know...winning two wars and standing up against two of the most powerful creatures on this and other planets takes a lot out of ya….everyone agreed that he deserved some special privileges, one of which was being able to actually relax at the camp. Most of the time he was just moping around because, since he and Annabeth had broken up and Annabeth left the camp to spend summer with her dad and his new family, he didn't have anything to do anyway. Everyone was either away or doing some amusing project and whatnot and Percy really didn't feel like doing something meaningful, so he was locked up in his cabin sending Iris messages to random people and drinking unhealthy amounts of blue coloured Fanta. It was a lonely way to be but so far, it had worked for him; he had some time to reorganise his thoughts (not that….there were THAT many thoughts), think about getting on a healthy diet (again not that….he actually had the energy or determination to act on those thoughts), enjoy his single days among the ladies (once again...not that….female salmons in the river were very interested in a conversation with him). Overall, his existence was miserable, almost as in if a murderous, dangerous, serial-killing monster wasn’t paying attention to him, no one was interested in him.<br/>
This day, however, he felt super annoyed by his constant flood of memories of his last and final fights with his former girlfriend, so he decided to go for a quick swim and little bit of bronzing to the lake. It didn’t really help, their break-up was not the most peaceful one in history, which had come as a surprise to pretty much everyone since they started off as really good friends.<br/>
He was sitting on the shore sunburnt, sweaty and he was ready to head back to the cabins when he heard casual whistling behind him. As he turned around, he saw from the corner of his eye a bright blinding light, the sheer power of the light knocked out most of his senses. Jason was standing in the middle of the black, burnt spot where the bolt hit the ground and looking at Percy with a surprised face he yelled: “Hey  Perce! I didn't think I'd see you here. You feeling better, bro?” By the stunned look on Percy’s face Jason must have gathered that he was still bummed about the break-up, and didn’t think that it might have something with the fact that Jason literally dropped himself from the sky. “I hope you don't mind if I accompany you?” said Jason; Percy wanted to say he was already leaving, but the semi pleading look on Jason's face convinced him, and therefore he decided to stay. “Yeah, no, it’s fine” Percy replied. He sat down with his legs dipped in water, Jason followed, however, he crossed his legs instead of putting them in water with Percy’s; of course not out of fear, only out of caution.</p>
<p> “That entrance stunt was pretty cool, when did you learn it?” Percy asked. It did not really come as any surprise though, since Jason had no problem striking bolts of lightning when necessary during the war,however when it came to peaceful non-aggressive use of his powers it had proven to be more difficult. “I was practicing a lot these days. You know, loads of free time, no war and I don't really know how to do renovations, so I would be no help,” Jason shrugged as if it was no big deal, but Percy was jealous of Jason´s ability to be a productive, responsible representant of the Roman community; Percy, on contrary, was totally not fulfilling his duties as heroic hero of all heroes. It’s not like he didn’t have the time, he COULD blame it on that though, or he could blame it on having to recover from the events (even though he would probably need a whole army of underworld shrinks to get through that shit), he was simply just too tired to even try.  Jason seemed to notice Percy´s current state, because he nudged him and with a voice soaked in pity he said:” dude, you know you can come to me if things bother you? It hurts me to see you lifeless like this. We should do something to cheer you up, what do you say?”<br/>
No, maybe? Let me wallow in self-pity and self-hatred, maybe? Not that he could actually say any of those things, it would either make Jason worried or think that with everything that had happened, it was finally too much for Percy to handle. It wasn't that he did not miss his friends and hanging out with Jason, he simply could not bring himself to enjoy life; brooding seemed only reasonable after the breakup and stuff.<br/>
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” What else was there to do?<br/>
“ Great! Come on, my little wet friend, the adventure awaits!”<br/>
“ Wait! Where? Now?” Percy looked up at Jason as he stood up.<br/>
“Yes! Now! As it seems, without a challenge, there seems to be no purpose to your life, I am here to give you some,” Jason responded with a cheeky little smile.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2- - PANCAKEingly slow-burn</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello, here is a new chapter. Please, excuse and/or correct any grammar mistakes (brain is refusing to work normally). <br/>Anyway enjoy and let know your opinion in the comments :*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“No, not in a million years, no way! I am not helping that ungrateful, drunk assbutt finding his magic stick so he can go back to insulting me!” Percy horrifically exclaimed while Chiron just rolled his eyes and Jason flinched a little upon hearing Percy calling a god names. In his time, Percy did a lot of things for a lot of horrible people, however, he never thought he would EVER have to move a finger to directly help someone who continuously made his life a living hell (not literally of course, he was in literal hell once and, to be honest, he would take another trip to Tartarus over a cup of tea with Dionysus anytime).</p>
<p>“ Come on Percy, you know this will do good for you. Don't concentrate on the part where you´ll have to help Dionysus, just concentrate on the part where you´ll visit new places and you´ll clear your mind. You cannot continue this ridiculous, unhealthy lifestyle. You are basically becoming a sloth!” Jason insisted. </p>
<p>“Better to become a sloth than Dionysus’ maenad,” Percy murmured under his breath.</p>
<p>“And you know he also did a hell of a lot of good when he was needed,” not only wasn’t Jason on Percy’s side but now Chiron went against him too? <br/>“But… but he…,” Percy stuttered; clearly, he wasn't nowhere near winning this argument, but that did not stop him from getting huffy because of Chiron´s choice of the task for them. Percy didn’t like to brag but he had stood against two of the most powerful creatures in all of the universe and had beaten them, so why was the only thing that they thought was appropriate for his level of abilities a quest to get back Dionysus’ freaking staff? He did not like to bring up that card, but he totally would if it guaranteed him a way out of this situation. However Jason seemed to be quite interested, so he finally gave in: ”Okay, well, let's say that I WOULD consider helping Mr. small D, what exactly would we have to do?” Jason and Chiron quickly looked at each other, exchanged weird faces and Chiron with a subtle smile specified: ”Let’s rewind. Dionysus had a minor dispute over, erm, inapplicable matter with Apollo and it looks like Apollo stole Dionysus´ thyrsus-”<br/>“ A what?” <br/>“Let me finish Percy, by the way it is the “stick”, so Apollo stole thyrsus. It is a very important object for Dionysus and he needs it back as soon as possible. Therefore you will go find it. Grover will also go with you because he is a satyr, that means he can ”tune in” with Dionysus and recognize thyrsus in whatever shape or form it will occur as.” </p>
<p>“And why exactly are WE the ones that need to get it for him? I mean, no offense but if after everything that happened, the cause of our deaths was suffocating by a freaking grape vine, not only would our immortal parents be mad as heck, but you would also have to deal with my mom, and let me tell you, she was not the most welcoming woman after a bunch of gods took her son, erased his memory and put him in a camp with the kids of the different personalities of the same gods, so ...if I were you, I would choose the heroes for this quest wisely,” </p>
<p>Wow, Percy, the son of Poseidon, the defeater of Kronos, the one who walked through Tartarus, and yet you still use your mom as a threat. His thoughts were not as supportive as the words coming out of his mouth were.<br/>“Don’t be such a drama queen dude, but hats off, this was the longest you’ve spoken this week,” Jason grinned and resolutely added: “You need this, you will thank me later. Chiron, we are definitely going, where is the location?” </p>
<p>Okay, so apparently my word has no meaning whatsoever  around here, Percy thought bitterly. I guess he couldn’t really complain. It seemed easy enough (yes, he may have exaggerated a bit when he practically implied that they were going to their deaths), the company is not the worst in the world, and he could unwind and have some ‘bro time’ with his good buddy Jason. What could possibly go wrong? Right? RIGHT?! </p>
<p>After Chiron reassured them (well mostly Jason, Percy couldn't give less shit about the magic twig of that old dick) that he was going to talk with Grover and give him further details as he was the navigator, they headed off to the Great Hall for early dinner. </p>
<p>Despite being the middle of August, the emptiness in the Hall seemed to be almost audible, which, if you think about it, is quite disturbing. Many campers were off building new cabins for smaller gods, others went home to appreciate that they were still alive and there was still a world to live in….and so on and so on. What? Oh, were you expecting some heroic story about every other camper? We ain’t got no time for that. <br/>Percy and Jason were seated in the corner, at the Poseidon’s table. Jason watched with concern as Percy was pouring maple syrup all over his unsurprisingly blue pancakes, little droplets of syrup ended on Percy’s formerly white t-shirt. “Dude that’s almost disgusting, how do you not have diabetes yet?” Jason said, however he smiled because he remembered the similar scenario that had happened on Argo II. <br/>“THIS?!” Percy pointed at his blue pancakes (more like blue sponges by now), “...is the only lifestyle choice I accept.”</p>
<p>“You know, healthy dishes can be yummy too. You should try it at least once.” remarked Jason and continued to eat his weird, gooey, almost liquid substance with joy, while Percy was observing him with a look of disbelief. How can one be so awfully punctual in nearly every aspect of their life? Isn't it a bit boring?</p>
<p>“Jason, you have to let loose. You are a teenager, when will you eat whatever you want and not get a gallbladder attack if not now? You made me go on a quest, I will show you how to enjoy life a bit.” </p>
<p>“What you are doing right now is SHORTENING your life! How about you try to keep yourself alive with a healthy diet and ENJOY life through...I don’t know, going on interesting trips, or learning an instrument, or acquiring a new hobby?”</p>
<p>“Nah, man, you find the real joy in dipping carbohydrates in condiments, that is the real secret.” To emphasize his point, Percy stuffed a rather large mouthful of syrupy pancakes in his mouth and smiled at Jason while chewing.<br/>Jason couldn't help himself but grin.<br/>”I missed you bro. How are you holding? Tell me the truth please.” he asked softly. <br/>Percy sighed: “Well, been better, what can I say? I loved Annabeth and we were friends for a long time so I didn't expect this to happen at all. I think neither did she. It is so confusing, you are all happy in love, enjoying that the war ended and thinking about going to school together, planning couple things and suddenly you cannot stand each other's company. Part of me is relieved that it ended because of the endless fights but a bigger part of me wishes that we could just go back together. I miss her and I am afraid that our relationship will change drastically and- I sound pathetic don't I?” <br/>“Well, if you ask me, this whole thing is overrated”<br/>Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence, Percy knew that Jason was not the best person to pour his feelings out to, but who else was there? Also, his past experiences had taught him that keeping things in and bottling things up usually did not end well for all the people involved. <br/>“Although,” oh great, Jason’s deep meaningful speech did not seem to be over yet, “I think, you both need to spend some time apart with your own people…”<br/>“We share most of our friends,” Percy added.<br/>“With….people…..who...do not….care?” then he realized how it must have sounded, “NO, that sounds insensitive, I mean, you know what I mean…”<br/>Okay, now he was getting wound up. <br/>“Yeah, I get it, you know, the day you will be able to express your thoughts, will be the day, I’ll start worrying about you.” <br/>Jason let out a frustrated sigh:” listen, I do care about you, you are my friend, that is why I came. I just... don't know how to comfort people.”<br/> Percy opened his mouth and exclaimed“Breaking news: The perfectly perfect Jason Grace savior of the worlds, health, mind and fitness guru doesn't know how to do something? That is, like, impossible.”<br/>Jason just rolled his eyes and they finished their dinner in comfortable silence, Jason stealing a few pieces of pancakes and Percy even tasting the supposedly healthy thing Jason was eating.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. CHAPTER 3- APOLLOgies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello guys, thank you for reading this smol thing. Excuse the grammar mistakes.<br/>enjoy :*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Both of them had decided to stay in the camp for the night and to set off on the journey first thing in the morning. At the crossroad between Jason’s cabin (that was his but not really because you know….he is a Roman) and Percy’s cabin, they wished each other good night and went to their respective cabins.<br/>The sun hadn't risen yet and Jason was already knocking on Percy´s door. Percy was slowly beginning to regret that he had agreed on doing something. He opened the door half asleep in his mighty nightgown aka. Nemo themed boxers- gift from Annabeth (when they were still madly in love) and old fluffy socks;on contrary, Jason was fully dressed, almost sparkling with cleanliness. <br/>“ Rise and shine Perce! Go dress up, we are meeting with Grower in the Great Hall.” said Jason, voice full of enthusiasm. Percy rolled his eyes at the other demigod's good mood, but Jason´s spirit was contagious, so Percy was a tad bit happier when he turned around ready to make himself look more like a human being.<br/>While Percy was going around the cabin, trying to find his clothes, Jason was staring at his every movement with a very amused look on his face.<br/>“Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” Percy said grumpily.<br/>“Have you found him yet?” <br/>“Who?” Percy straightened out his posture after being bent over to pick up his jeans off the floor.<br/>“Nemo,” answered Jason cheekily, “he seems to be hiding in some very suspicious places.” <br/>Percy gave him the finger: “Fuck you, man! It was a gift and…..It fits quite comfortably where it is supposed to fit.”<br/>“Ookay, TMI, dude, TMI,” Jason raised his hands in a ‘I surrender’ gesture. <br/>While Percy was finishing off the packing - which included a blue T-shirt and a pair of black jeans, both of which he was currently wearing, and his precious little innocent pen - Jason looked around his cabin, admiring the handy artwork hung around. <br/>“It does appear to be somewhat stereotypical, doesn’t it?” Jason asked while looking at a huge trident on the wall.<br/>“What does?”<br/>“The decorations.”<br/>“Ehm, I would like to sound edgy and say ‘Yeah, totally, I hate my parents heritage!’ but I quite like it, to be honest,” Percy shrugged.<br/>“Well, you do you, I guess, even if the you is just a mini-Poseidon,” <em>Could Jason stop smirking for just a second? It is rather annoying, however I must admit the little scar on his lip is cute.</em><br/>Percy (slightly blushing because of the thoughts) frowned,” What are you talking about, I am not mini-dad.” <br/>“You dress totally like your dad,” to prove his point Jason opened Percy´s closet where khaki shorts and Hawaiian shirts were neatly hanging upon a pile of dirty clothes.<br/>“What is wrong with my clothes? I bet you are saying this because you are jealous. You dress like a boring forty year old office guy on his free day.” objected Percy looking at Jason´s perfectly ironed white T´shirt cuffed into blue jeans.<br/>“Whatever man. Lets go, Grover is waiting.” Jason stated. Percy slammed the door behind them, he didn't even bother to lock up. </p><p>Grover was already there, impatiently shifting around. “Finally!” he exclaimed and fist-bumped with  both boys. <br/>“So, I talked to Chiron and he seemed to think that Apollo would make his hide-out in a very ostentatious place,” Grover exclaimed.<br/>“That...is very helpful, anything else?” Percy sighed and looked up at the sky praying to all the gods that it would be in New York, preferable under his bed in her mom’s apartment. <br/>“Well, we might not be able to narrow it down, BUT” Grover pointed his finger at Percy threateningly: “ we might know some people who are very closely related to Apollo.” He looked at Percy pointedly as if expecting him to have the answer. <br/>“And those aaaaare…” <br/>Grover’s whole body slacked down in defeat: “Seriously, how you defeated a guy who ate his own children, I’ll never know!” Now he was exasperatedly flailing around his hands like Joey from Friends. <br/>“Apollo’s children!” Jason shouted from behind Grover.<br/>“OOOhhhhh!” Percy let out a breath with his mouth opened like a fish, with Grover joining in to point out how obvious the answer was.<br/>They heard footsteps approaching and there was a petite girl waving at them with a big grin plastered on her freckled face. “Hello boys, I didn't expect you to be there.” she glanced at Percy, surely hinting at his never ending, lifeless brooding around the camp after the breakup. “I am Kayla Knowles.” she said with a hand reaching out towards Jason. “Jason Grace.” Jason greeted, shaking her hand. Kayla smiled warmly at Jason  while scanning him from head to toe and then she turned to Grover.”What did you call me for?” <br/>“You know how you always say how it is not very likely for you to be the hero of your own quest?” Grover said with his voice getting suspiciously higher. <br/>“Yes?!” Kayla said with her voice raising above the average volume range as well. Although was there hope in there too? <br/>“And you know how you always complain about the big awesome heroes who get to do all the big awesome heroic stuff and how you not so famous demigod people get a little left behind?”<br/>Hmm, thanks. <br/>Her whole face dropped and a blush crept up on her cheeks in what Percy hopes is shame, thank you very much.<br/>“Y-yeah?” <br/>“Well, YOU’RE IN LUCK! Because today, you get to give directions to all the big-headed dumbasses that you always complain about!” Grover said with a big sincere smile on her face with his hands in the air in the ‘surprise’ kind of way.<br/>The most terrifying thing was witnessing how the whole point of Kyle’s life had just left her body. <br/>“You know how you always complain about your tail getting in the way when you walk and you always tripping over it?” she said in the calmest voice Percy had ever heard.<br/>“Yeah?” Grover said cautiously.<br/>She crossed her arms and assumed a sassy position: “Do you think you would be able to walk more easily if someone...hmm I don’t know…..stuck your tail up your ass, you big ungulate!!!” <br/>“Oookay, everybody calm down.” Percy broke Kayla´s glare of death by standing in front of Grover with hands in the midair similar to the priests. “Breath in aaaand exhale. Nobody is sticking anything anywhere. Kayla could you excuse the rudeness of this ugly, hairy guy? We need your help.” <br/>“Go on, what do you need?” said Kayla, still frowning.<br/>if you were your father, where would you hide something Dionysus finds very important?” <br/>“Well, recently while I was trying to contact him via Iris message, I overheard his conversation with someone. He was talking about putting some object aside in his summer house ,The Crib, which is, unfortunately, in LA as far as I know.” Kayla grinned, seemingly forgetting about the previous dispute. <br/>Jason and Grover looked at each other despairingly, much to Percy’s confusion; if they were going to LA, that meant: “We get to meet Chris Evans?!” <br/>Jason clapped on Percy´s shoulder: “Calm down Percy, your inner fangirl is showing.” <br/>“Alright, to LA and back. Two days tops,” Grover happily exclaimed: “pack your bags, guys! We’re about to enjoy each other’s company for about 7 and a half hours on a plane so…”<br/>“Whoa, Whoa,whoa,” Percy backed away from the now two-man group: “Wh-who said anything about flying?!” <br/>“How do you propose we get to LA from freaking Long Island?!” asked Jason.<br/>“Uuhh…..a bus?......a bike….a freaking giant seahorse? I don’t know….just not something from which a certain god can strike me off the sky!!!”<br/>“I don’t worry,” Jason put his arm around Percy’s shoulders leading him back to the cabin to pack: “If he does strike us with lightning or some shit, I’ll catch you and we’ll fly off into the sunset.” <br/>“HEY!!” yelled Grover behind them: “WHAT ABOUT ME?” He kept yelling even though all he could see were two bodies walking together towards the Poseidon’s cabin.<br/>“Thanks guys,” yelled Grover again even though no one was listening anymore: “I’ll just ...plummet to my death.” <br/>Grover kicked the ground with his hoof and walked off to pack his things as well.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter4- Gorgona says, URINE trouble</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Hello, another chapter for you T_T. Hope you like it, (hope it is not toooo slow burn)<br/>enjoy :* (and thank to you who read this piece of fine shit)</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Percy was sitting on a yellow plastic chair in the duty free zone, nervously fidgeting with his fingers, looking around and eyeing everything and everyone. Both Jason and Grover had been trying their best to calm him down on their way to the airport, which had proven to be absolutely useless as he was still freaked out as all hell. Can you imagine, sending a son of Poseidon - the god of the sea!! - into a large flying object with about 50 other people? Yeah, he could imagine about 500000 other ways in which he could spend his brooding phase. Because he was very lucky, when he was walking through the scan at security control the thing started to beep. It turned out that he had forgotten to put away his pen Riptide and that whole incident didn't help with his rising anxiety at all. Grover and Jason looked at each other, faces filled with panic. Take an awkward 17-year-old teenager into a room full of cops and order him to strip down, see how he feels about that. Fortunately, the security did not see the giant sword that arose once they clicked the pen, which was a very disturbing image, when they handed him back the Riptide with a warning: “It’s guys like you that make our jobs that much harder, kid. If I found even a fucking butter knife on you, you would be spending your day in a much less friendly environment!”  <br/>Mentally scarred boys were watching their plane land. Grover seemed excited, Jason was throwing concerned glances over Percy.<br/>“Man, I am sorry.” he said and gently patted Percy on his shoulder. <br/>“Nah, It is not your fault. I did not expect Riptide to be recognized by metal detectors.” <br/>When they heard a lady robot-like voice notifying passengers about plane boarding, the natural  skin shade of Percy's face vanished and was replaced by an ashy, green hue.<br/>“Good afternoon passengers. This is the pre-boarding announcement for flight 89B to Los Angeles. We are now inviting those passengers with small children, and any passengers requiring special assistance, to begin boarding at this time. Please have your boarding pass and identification ready. Regular boarding will begin in approximately ten minutes time. Thank you.”<br/><em>Oh, cool, last ten minutes of my existence</em>, Percy’s thought took a very much expected turn for the worse as he was slowly coming to terms with the idea of dying on the monstrosity of a plane filled with a bunch of wannabe stars. <br/>As they still had 10 more minutes, Jason decided to quickly get some overpriced snacks from one of the shops. While walking towards the cashier he noticed an old lady, who appeared to be one of the workers, watching him from behind a magazine about what looked to be ‘10 tips for a moisturized spotless skin’. By the look of the woman’s skin, she wasn’t really following them. Not thinking much of it, he proceeded to pay for his skittles. <br/>Jason went back to where his two friends were sitting. All three gathered their backpacks and went on to board the plane. <br/>“Guys?” Both Grover and Jason turned around at the sound of Percy’s voice, “you go ahead, I’ll need to ...ehm….let out the last bits…..of my nervous energy,” he said while pointing towards the toilet signs on the doors, presumably leading to the bathrooms. <br/>“Yeah, okay, Grover, stay here. I’ll go with Percy.”<br/>“Dude,” Percy said outraged,”It is not group activity!”<br/>“Nah, man, I’ll just go make sure that you don’t jump out the window.”<br/>“We’re on the third floor and there are no windows in the bathrooms!”<br/>“Well, what do you know? Better be safe than sorry.”<br/>Jason put his arm around Percy’s shoulders and together they set off towards the bathrooms, with Grover being left behind with a very suspicious look on his face.<br/>They were alone in the room; Percy went into the stool, because he was feeling shaky and he needed the support of a stable toilet seat, plus he couldn't risk accidentally, ehm, sprinkle over his only jeans. Jason was softly humming an unfamiliar tone and absently staring at the wall, standing next to the last of the stools. After finishing his business, Percy washed his hands and splashed water at his face in order to calm himself a bit. <br/>Suddenly, the old entrance door opened and the staring old lady from before came in. <br/>“Errm, this is the men's bathroom, madam.” said Percy with a gentle smile.<br/>“Perseuss Jacksson. You have the audacity to show here! To walk shamelessly around, when my ssisster is dead BECAUSSE OF YOU!” she started screeching with an unusual sibilance. The demigods immediately knew something was about to go horribly wrong.<br/><em>Why me? Why does everything have to go to shit when I TRY to exist in peace FOR FIVE FUCKING MINUTES!?</em> Percy thought helplessly as the lady started to deform right in front of their faces. The boys looked at each other, Jason saw confusion in the other's eyes. Percy had no idea what he did to the sister of this angry lady. <br/>“Well, I don't know who you are and what he did to your sister, but he is terribly sorry, right, Percy?” Jason exclaimed, his hand squeezing the coin which turned into the imperial gold gladius a second later. <br/><em>Oh yes, there is nothing that makes a stranger trust you more than pulling a huge ass sword on them</em>, Percy thought as he was pulling out his own lethal weapon. <br/>“Fear me pathetic demigods. I, Stheno, the eldest of Gorgonas, am going to avenge the death of my sister. Eye for eye, life for life!” screamed the ugly madam and morphed into her true shape. It would have seemed a lot more frightening if ‘Stheno’ wasn’t wearing a bright red shirt of a brand of a grocery store at the airport. Percy could deffinetly see the resemblance between the sisters; wrinkly face with A LOT of warts (Percy would recommend using some treatment, It looked nasty as fuck), sharp rusty teeth and the hair- hundreds of sizzling snakes swirling around her head. Although, Stheno was even uglier and seemed even deadlier.<br/>Before fully attacking her, Percy tried to go for the calm friendly approach: “Have any of you ever actually seen what the other looks like? I mean, that old gal would not have led a happy life either way.” Maybe it would make Percy’s life a lot easier if he sometimes kept his mouth shut, but...what kind of stories would he have to tell on bonfire nights at the camp then? The Gorgona only hissed in response, <em>I guess she really isn’t used to constructive criticism.</em><br/>The scene that would lay itself out before a stranger’s eyes, if one was to walk in at the moment would be quite funny. Two teenagers with a pen and a coin in their hands standing defensively in front of a shop worker in a red shirt (yes, Percy really could not get over that shirt). <br/>She jumped on Percy with the intention to slit his throat but Jason quickly got into the way and with good aim he hit Gorgona with the pommel of his sword. She stumbled back a little, holding her nose, the place that got hurt by the sword. Although, for a second, she did seem disoriented,  she quickly snapped out of it and tried to attack again, this time she advanced towards Jason, who seemed to have expected the attack as he swung his sword from side to side and got it back up in the air ready to strike. On the other side of the room Percy was slowly creeping towards the monster, as she seemed to have lost interest in him whatsoever. He tried to stab her from behind, but she rapidly twisted, however he managed to scratch her side. By this move Sheno got close enough to injure him, sharp claws sinking to Percy's shoulder. Percy whimpered and Jason swiftly moved, electricity buzzing around him, he wielded his gladius through the air and the Gorgon’s arm, effectively cutting it off. Stheno screeched and looked down at her missing arm in horror.<br/>“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!! YOU FOOLS!!! I HAVE ROAMED THIS PLANET FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS! TWO FOOLISH BOYS CANNOT STOP ME!”<br/>As she moved forward to presumably attack another one of the boys again, the room began to be filled with a wonder sound making all of them sleepy. Percy and Jason quickly recognized what it was and covered their ears, blocking the music out, and with that the sleepiness wore off as quickly as it came. The same could not be said for the one-armed Gorgona, who still tried to go after them even in her dizzy state. It looked quite comical, if you looked from a great distance. It was as if she were in slow motion. <br/>Grover still playing on his magic flute gestured towards the door. Boys quickly ran out and headed towards the plane gate.<br/>“It won't last for long, she is a strong creature so I assume it wears off faster. I hope we have some time.” the satyr breathed out as they were still hurrying to board the plane. He abruptly stopped them when he noticed that Percy was bleeding through his shirt and the blood stain was big enough to bring attention to three suspiciously sweaty and startled boys. <br/>“Perce, you are looking extremely pale. Here-” Grover pulled from his backpack a small packet filled with brown candy-” ambrosia, take some. Also take Jason´s jacket. The stain is horrendous.” Percy silently did as he was told, Jason helping him put on the hoodie. It was a bit loose on him since his muscle definition...was not…as defined as Jason’s. Percy wasn’t jealous! Let’s get that out of the way! He simply, as bro-to-bro, appreciated his six-pack! His cheeks turned a slight pink hue. <br/>“Finally, some color to your face!” exclaimed the satyr and they proceeded to pass through the plane gate. <br/>They found their seats, Jason took the window seat, Percy was seated in the middle and Grover occupied the aisle seat. Jason was whispering something under his breath, upon noticing the glances of his friends, he clarified: “Just telling dad, that I am on the plane too, so he wouldn't, well, you know… strike the plane with a bolt or something.” Percy gave him a terrified look and Jason started to apologize for his tactlessness. Flight attendants started to give the passengers their usual presentation, Percy sunken deeper into his seat and he started nervously scanning the surrounding as if he was trying to find a place to hide. <em>I am about to die. Oh I forgot to make a will… Actually, I don't have anything to put on my will. Well, I do have a sock-collection.</em><br/>“I would like Nico to be the heir of my collection of socks.” Percy said with total seriousness. Jason and Grower looked at each other, highly concerned, their eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Before they could answer, the plane started to move. While still on the runway, Percy’s heart almost jumped out of his chest with the heavy beats. He quickly tried to grab both Grover’s and Jason’s hands to feel more secure, however, as he tried to take Grover’s hand, he felt a sharp pain in his arm, the bite wound still stung (duh, it was only like 20 minutes after the attack). Grover did not look that sad about the fact that Percy could not squeeze his hand hard enough to break.  Jason, on the other hand, was not that lucky. Percy took his hand and squeezed it as hard as he could. <br/>Grover turned towards Jason to tease him a bit; Jason must not have been very happy about his blood circulation being cut off. As he looked at Jason, he noticed that he didn’t seem to mind that much, it was the opposite actually. When Grover looked at their intertwined hands, he noticed that Jason was squeezing Percy’s hand just as hard, which was quite strange, but Grover classified it as another bro-to-bro kind of thing.<br/>In reality, Percy found it reassuring, even though, if someone looked at him they would just see a freaked-out, white as a sheet, teenager that was about ready to end it all. <br/>“Oh you have such a cute boyfriend!” said an old lady in the seat in front of them after she turned around for some reason.<br/>“NO!” Jason exclaimed: “he’s just really afraid of flying so...yeah,” Jason closed his eyes in embarrassment.  He tried to let go of Percy’s hand so they would not be mistaken for a couple again. Percy, however, had no intention of ever letting go: “If you let go, I swear, when we come back to camp, I’m making a fucking public aquarium of deadly sea monsters in your cabin, remember Jason, they get hungry, and you have to sleep somewhere!” Percy said with closed eyes, and no humor detected in his voice. Jason certainly did not want to risk that scenario becoming more than a scenario, so with a hint of threat in the air he squeezed Percy’s hand as hard as he could once again. <br/>The plane was flying steady in the air, hundreds of metres above the ground. Nightly silence encircled the passengers. Grover was soundly snoring, a thin string of saliva dripping from his mouth. Jason was absently staring from the small window, watching stars, hoping that his father would be normal enough to let them travel in peace. Percy was still holding Jason´s hand, but not as aggressively as before. He was dozing off , still feeling a bit uneasy and stiff, however the fact that next to him was a son of Zeus (literal human shield against the dangers of the god of the sky)  reassured him. He unconsciously leaned onto Jason, Jason's arm making a sufficient pillow. Surrounded by the familiar scent of the other demigod oozing from the hoodie, Percy drifted off to sleep feeling a tad bit safe.</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. CHapter 5- SPOONtaneous LA Trips</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello, presenting you the newest chapter (a bit of a filler, but, you know, getting in there)<br/>excuse any mistakes<br/>:*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The flight was surprisingly peaceful and nothing happened (except for slight turbulence, that was when Percy almost got a stroke) so when they finally landed, Percy almost cried of happiness and started kissing the floor. For some reason, the rest of their ‘crew’ did not find it as socially acceptable as …..hmm ….letting out a sigh of relief, so they moved on without Percy, leaving him on the floor. Of course, Percy was still injured so getting off the floor was not as graceful as he would have expected. <br/>“Uh, GUYS!” Percy called out as the ‘guys’ were already near the Baggage claim area. Upon hearing his voice, you could see their shoulders sink in defeat. They turned around and  saw that Percy was struggling to stand up. They both rolled their eyes at the same time which….HEY…..rude! Grover helped the injured crybaby while Jason took Percy's backpack.<br/>“You know, I can carry my own stuff,” frowned Percy, however when he tried to snatch the rucksack, his arm started to bleed again. The blonde sighed and with two bags on each shoulder he continued in his way out of the building. <br/>The sun was just above the horison, Jason dramatically breathed in and said:<br/>“We have a beautiful, sunny morning full of new opportunities, dudes!” <br/>“Of course, oh, mighty life guru, tell us which path we should follow?” Percy sneered, annoyed with Jason´s contagious positivism. <br/>“Oh yes, as it would appear, we had certainly taken the cautious steps to prepare ourselves for this journey,” Grover mentioned the actual lack of information that had about the quest. Once they made their way into the scorching LA sun, they immediately stopped (although they could have just stopped inside the building with a functioning A/C, but…..what kind of a dramatic effect would THAT have had?!). Each one of them looked at the other, probably hoping to find some kind of hope in their eyes. Of course, with the tremendous amount of luck that each one of them had surely brought into the quest, they stood in silence for about 5 minutes, waiting for someone to talk.<br/>“Okay, so I would propose looking around the city. Apollo is an extravagant drama queen, therefore it seems logical, that his… The Crib… would be in the center.” said Grover resolutely.<br/>“What? LA is, like, HUGE! It'll take us at least a month to find his manor.” exclaimed Percy.<br/>Grover rolled his eyes: “Well, go on then, blob-fish, do you have a better idea?”<br/>“Eeeehm… what if we-... or we could…” Percy stuttered, trying to find a solution, looking at Jason for help. Jason shrugged helplessly. “ Nah, okay I surrender, let's go to the streets.”<br/>And so they went, just three dudes wandering around LA, looking for, most likely a huge house full of obscene ...well...everything. After a couple of hours, they were already planning on giving up.<br/>“Okay, let’s break this down systematically,” Jason said, surely just about ready to turn on his heel and go back home, but surprisingly not fully there yet: “As mentioned before, Apollo is quite the...high maintenance attention seeking ….person, so ...it would only make sense that he would be going for the very expensive houses”<br/>“Yeah, Sherlock? What else is new?” Percy said with a voice filled with annoyance.<br/>“Well look around genius!” Jason splayed his arms to point at their surroundings: “This is surely not where the rich rich people live!”<br/>Percy and Grover looked around in realization. The houses that surrounded them were big, that is for sure, however, all three of them were quite certain that there existed houses that were a lot more expensive than the ones at which they were looking right now. <br/>“Let's do it like this. Firstly, let's find a place to eat, because I, a wounded hero, need some fuel, in order to keep me fit and ready so I can protect you two from all the dangers of LA.” exaggeratedly sighed Percy, his stomach rumbling in agreement. <br/>Nobody protested and after a little argument with Jason (he can go to hell with his gross ideas about healthy foods) they settled for a cheap pizzeria near them. They engulfed two large pizzas (even mr. Spinach Smoothie) and Grover stole a few forks and knives as a snack for later. The boys then bought a touristic map of the LA, so they could navigate through the city easier. <br/>“Alrights,” Jason said as he pulled out the map of LA and searched for a street that would fit their DIY description: “so……..the street that we should go to is…..” Jason scrunched his eyebrows in thought, not really having an idea of how to read a map. <br/>Percy leaned in and observed the map. “Beverly Hills, hmm, home of celebrities like Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and others. That sounds boujee enough for Apollo, don't ya think?” <br/>It was further away, therefore they had to take a bus. <br/>Once they arrived at their destination, they were almost 100% certain that they would find Apollo in there somewhere, and if not at least their chances of seeing Justin Bieber significantly increased, not that they ever listened to his music or went to his concert or anything (*Grover looks awkwardly at the camera*). <br/>“Okay, so…” Percy started to talk with what looked like a spark of plan in his eyes, which was of course total bull, he had no idea where to go. <br/>“Let’s just walk along and see what we can find,” Jason constructed a very complicated plan.<br/>They were roaming the neighborhood, desperately trying to catch an indication of supernatural or Apollonian extravaganza, but no such luck. The streets looked expensively humane, humongous gates, lots of palm trees, millions of cameras. Percy was so bored that he started two arguments with Jason, annoyed the others with his remix of Hotel California and ate half of Grover´s vegan snacks. <br/>After a good amount of wasted time, the boys figured out that the neighborhood was very big and Apollo probably didn't live there. Evening came quickly and they had exactly nothing. Grover disappointedly declared:” I doubt we will find Apollo's house today. Let's look for a place to sleep, agree?” <br/>They were too exhausted to express a proper agreement so they made a sound of what Grover guessed was “mmhmm”. <br/>Jason pulled out their map again, this time in search of a very cheap, very crappy motel. They found one a bit farther away, but affordable, so they took a taxi and to the nearest metro station and from there got to their motel.<br/>As expected, the hotel looked just like what they could afford, a very old building with two stories, the ugliest oldest brown doors and windows they could find apparently. As they say, home sweet home.<br/>Jason elegantly proceeded to speak with the hotel receptionist- a young adult guy with a uniform stained form, presumably, ketchup: “ Good evening sir, we would like to rent an apartment or a room for three people please.”<br/>The receptionist was probably drunk or under influence of other substances, because he tried to give them his car keys and referred to Grover as Miss Harisonn. <br/>When they finally unlocked their shabby looking room, Percy was already falling asleep on his feet. Grover got inside first, and when he spotted that there was only a double bed and a one sofa-like bed he quickly jumped on the later and shouted: “I call dibs on the single bed!” <br/>“HEY!” Shouted Jason: “You can’t do that!”<br/>“Sure I can!” Answered Grover while getting comfortable on the one bed that actually looked like it wasn’t gonna rip each one of your vertebrae from its place and putting it in a random place in your body: “Standard shotgun rules. I am in sight of the room and I call it.”<br/>“Did you just…?” Jason started to argue but he noticed that Grover was no longer listening. As soon as he took off his shoes he dropped off as if he was dead. <br/>Jason sighed and got rid of his trousers, only in boxer briefs and shirt he wandered off to the bathroom to wash his teeth. As he came back ready to go lay down, he found Percy struggling with undressing himself because of the still stinging wound. <br/>“Hold on,” Jason made his way over to where Percy was standing  with his head and his injured arm still stuck in the T-shirt and his one arm free: “Let me just…” Jason didn’t finish his sentence, he took Percy’s arm and carefully helped him make his way safely out of it. <br/>Once Percy was free, he practically melted into the bed, sprawling onto the both sides, leaving no space for poor Jason. He sighed in annoyance and took one of the pillows, threw it on the ground, getting for his well-deserved beauty sleep. <br/>Percy registered Jason was nowhere to be seen, upon discovering Jason´s sleeping plan he felt ashamed of his own ignorance and he whispered: “ Jason, sorry bro, come to bed. You cannot sleep on the floor.” After a couple minutes of quiet argument, Percy eventually won and Jason climbed into the bed. For the sake of ‘bro code’ they laid back to back at first, however, as the night progressed, they both got more comfortable, turning to face the other. Half asleep Percy felt the familiar radiance of warmth of another body, which represented security and he subconsciously shuffled towards it wanting to be as close to the source of that comfortable contentment. By the time they fell asleep, Jason turned back around to find a position in which he would feel the most comfortable, Percy draped his arm over Jason’s waist, locking them in a loose embrace, both too tired to actually notice their actions.</p>
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<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6- IRISistible Morning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello there, yet another chapter. Hope you like it <br/>Enjoy :*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Grover’s eye cracked open upon the first streak of sunshine breaking through the window curtain. He yawned, mouth wide open and he was about to shout something cheeringly annoying so he could wake up his friends, then his eyes landed on an unexpected image. What he saw wasn’t quite as shocking as some would assume, however, he still kind of froze up, not really knowing if this was the reality, or if his wet dreams had got out of control. Both his companions were still soundly sleeping, snuggled up to each other, actually Grover would never have expected that Percy was the big spoon. Oh yes, his goals went a bit higher than just to  fight to keep the nature alive; his shipping game was quite strong as well. He noticed how peaceful the boys looked, a big grin spread on his face. <br/>Of course, if they were just bros being dudes, that was okay too, but Grover couldn’t deny the fact that they made a hell of a cute couple. He silently got up and vanished to the <br/>bathroom, you know, to do the morning business.  <br/>While Grover was in there doing his thing, the rest of his ‘squad’ began to wake up as well. Percy opened his eyes, fully rested (which was weird, he hasn't got a good sleep in a while) as he was about to nuzzle into Jason to receive more of the calming heat radiating from the other, he realised that he was, well, about to nuzzle into Jason?! Grover´s head popped up from the bathroom with a toothbrush hanging from his mouth, he smiled and started to suggestively wink at Percy. The son of Poseidon just rolled his eyes in annoyance at his friend’s childish behaviour. So what?<br/> Had he shared a bed with a guy? <br/> Yes, he had. <br/> Had  he cuddled up to said guy?<br/> Possibly…<br/>             Had he had what was most likely the best sleep he’d gotten in a while?<br/>             Hell yeah!<br/>With cheeks flushed pink, Percy untangled himself from Jason carefully, not wanting to wake the sleeping boy up and perhaps face some awkward gazes or whatever, he slipped out of the bed. Since Grover was occupying the bathroom, and there was really only room for one unless he wanted to snuggle up to another guy (even if, technically, he was only half a guy...which was still totally valid), he went over to their bags to pull out their map. His bag was one big mess, empty wrappers  from different foods, various trinkets, a few coins, a drachma from his prank iris calls… <em>Wait a minute… We need help.... From someone who knows Apollo.... I have a drachma… Iris message… drachma… message… Oooh that COULD work!!</em><br/>“I have found A DRACHMA, brothers!” He screamed ear-splittingly, Jason instantly jolted up, his hand automatically turning the coin into the weapon.<br/>“What?” Jason and Grover said simultaneously. Jason calmed down upon seeing it was only what appeared to be a very excited Percy (which still warmed his heart, but he preferred to have his heart warmed at reasonable hours of the day, thank you very much), and just stared at him in confusion. Grover ran out of the bathroom with his face covered in shaving cream and while he was holding a razor above his head to presumably use it as a weapon. Once he also realized it was just Percy, he quickly ran back while showing Percy the finger. <br/>Percy was now offended.<br/>“This is how you show gratitude to the saviour of our quest? Rude, dude,” he said grimacing.<br/>“What?” Jason repeated, still deeply confused. <br/>“Well, you know,I have a drachma-” <br/>“Yes, we heard very clearly” “-shut up, I have a drachma therefore we can call someone and hope they´ve got the answers to where the fuck is.. The Crib.” (Percy couldn't not cringe and,yet, at the same time he couldn't not say the name of Apollo's house)<br/>“Grover, did you hear? This is a miracle! Percy. Has. Got. An. Actual. Normal. HELPFUL. Idea!”<br/>“I KNOW,” Grover yelled from the bathroom: “you’ll be surprised to hear this but from time to time, a few of those pop up in that head of his.”<br/>Jason laughed while Percy used what some people might call a ‘colorful language’ to describe a few of his friends’ traits.<br/>“You know what?” Percy said with a bit of sass detected in his voice: “Fine. You go out and run around the whole LA like headless goat-guys, while I’m contacting someone who might actually know something.”<br/>“Maan, no, I am sorry,” Jason laughed a little and proceeded to relocate from the bed next to Percy, he hugged him and patted him on his head.<br/>“You see, I am sorry, I didn't mean to offend our little boy.” <br/>“I am not a little child, Jason.” said Percy, still pouting. <br/>“Lets try the messaging. Who do we wanna call? Kyla?” suggested Jason changing the subject.<br/>“No, she was the closest to the head of the cabin and she still didn’t know,” Percy recalled the useful yet very vague advice she gave them. <br/>“Then why don’t we call the head of the cabin,” Grover suggested: “We know him quite well due to …..someone’s helicopter parenting.” He pointedly looked at Percy AND Jason since both of them led quite the interrogation against Will, once it became clear that he and Nico had been on their way to become more than friends.<br/>Jason and Percy sheepishly looked at each other, Percy rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, because maybeee…..they had gone a bit further than they needed to in order to make sure Nico’s well being was in good hands.<br/>“I regret nothing!” Even though it might have seemed ridiculous at the time, they all knew that interrogation was necessary.<br/>“So, we are calling Will then. Next problem, how do we create a rainbow? I mean, we don't have any spray bottle or something.” questioned Percy.<br/>Grover´s eyes glowed with excitement. “ That, ladies, is an easy 3rd grade project. Let me elaborate. We use the bathroom hose as our mist source. That bathroom is facing east and, thank gods, it's morning, therefore there will be enough light to create a rainbow.”<br/>“Eeh, and how do you make the mist from a stable stream of water?” Percy asked.<br/>“Percy, I hope you are joking. Aren't you a son of Poseidon? You are basically a WATERBENDER!” The satyr exclaimed with an eye roll.<br/>“Oh yeah, that...would be a perfectly acceptable argument if I knew anything about physics or mist creation, which I do not.”<br/>“Just,” Grover let out a frustrated sigh: “Follow my instruction and we’ll be fine.”</p><p>That is how the two demigods and one satyr found themselves squeezed in the tiny bathroom that barely fit one person. <br/>Percy unscrewed the shower head and with the hose firmly squeezed with both his hands he closed his eyes.<br/>“Okay, Jason turn on the shower.”<br/>As the liquid was travelling through the line, Percy was feeling the pressure of the water. He naturally synched with it, mentally ordering the fluid to divide into microscopic particles while it flung out of the hose. It felt as if something was pushing him in the back of his head as the water wanted to escape the pipes.<br/>“It's working! Good job, wet boy.” exclaimed the son of Jupiter with a proud smile.<br/>Percy redirected the flow according to Grover's instructions and a few minutes later the boys were soaking but happy because of the glistening rainbow in the air. <br/>“Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering.” chanted the satyr while throwing the ancient coin into the colourful droplets. Drachma disappeared in the mid air- the sign that it was working.<br/>“Would you show us Will Solace, camp Half-blood.” asked Grover politely.<br/>The colors started to reorder rapidly, assembling a fuzzy image of a dark room that suspiciously looked A LOT like the inside of the Hades cabin.<br/>“Why would Will be in a…..?” Jason didn’t even need to finish the question as all three came to the realisation that they might not be coming at the best time. Luckily, all they saw was a figure sitting at a table reading a book and another person lying on a bed farther away from their view.<br/>I didn’t seem like Will had noticed them at all. <br/>“Will,” Grover tried to whisper, trying not to wake up the figure sleeping. The son of Apollo seemed to be immersed in his book as he still did not acknowledge their presence.<br/>“WILL?!” Jason shouted, not really caring about the consequences of his actions.<br/>The loud voice startled the young demigod; his book got thrown in the air and he almost fell off the chair. He jumped upright looking around the room, looking for the source of the noise. Once he noticed them he let out a sigh of relief, probably glad that they once again managed to stay hidden from his siblings, who to put it gently, were quite the pain in Will’s ass when it came to his and Nico’s relationship. <br/>He quickly ran towards the image of his three unlikely friends: “Hey, guys!” He said with a smile on his face even though he seemed a bit nervous.<br/>He turned around to see if Nico was still asleep, when he faced them again he continued in a whisper: “What’s up? Nico is still asleep so he can’t really talk now. We wouldn’t want to interrupt his beauty sleep.”<br/>“That is so cute,” Jason began: “...and yet so disgusting...when did you become one of those couples?” Jason laughed as if his remark was something original and not something everyone at the camp had been saying the whole time.<br/>Jason seemed that he wanted to add something and Percy was already opening his mouth so Grover quickly stepped in:” Will listen, we have an urgent question. Don't you know, by any chance, where is the, eeh, house of your father here in LA?”<br/>Will's smile started to grow:” You mean… <em>The Crib</em>? Yeah, almost everyone from our cabin knows where it is.Every so often Apollo throws a big summer party there and he even invites his kids, 16+ of course. You have no idea how awkward and disturbing it is to see your YOUNG ADULT father flirting with numerous people, sometimes it goes even further.“ Will grimaced.<br/>“Can you give us an address, pretty please?” pleaded Jason.<br/>“Why not, give me a minute...hmm…. It´s 121 Esparta Way, Santa Monica. Big white mansion. I am sure you will know which one it is. Father tends to add a bit of magic to his decorations.” <br/>“Thanks, Will. You saved our asses,” said Percy with visible signs of relief on his face.<br/>“Why? What were you? Going to LA without any type of direction?” Will asked obviously ironically, but the three dumbasses looked at each other regretfully as it is, indeed, exactly what they had done. <br/>When Will saw their faces, his own filled with realization: “I mean, sometimes you gotta try. My dad is a very obnoxious dude, I can see why you would think you would be able to spot his house.” Obviously, he was trying to save the situation and obviously he was failing as all three of the guys felt like giant flops right then and there. <br/>“Anyway, what do you want in my dad’s house anyway?”<br/>“Well,” Grover began to explain why they were there, he told Will about the stolen staff and Apollo being quite obvious with his choice of housing and so on….<br/>“Yeah that sounds like him,” Will sounded like he was deep in thought, “Just….don’t let yourselves get fooled by him….he is ...not as pretentious as he lets other people believe.”<br/> “Okay Will, thank you for your advice. Don't forget to use protection and TAKE CARE of our small boy. Be responsible. Everything bad happens, we assume it is your fault, mkay?”Jason exclaimed, Percy fiercely nodding in agreement, Grover rolling his eyes (for hundredth time this morning) and Will in a shade of a tomato responded with: “ Gee thanks for the trust guys, really positive.” <br/>“Oh, slow down, cowboy, we really hope we don’t find ANYONE positive when we come back! Got it?” Percy had now one of his fingers risen in a threatening gesture.<br/>Will only rolled his eyes before running his hand through the image in which his friends and the adoptive parents of his boyfriend apparently appeared.<br/>Once again, the three heroes were left alone in a wet bathroom (because of the water from the shower, you pervert!!!). They all looked at each other and let out exhausted breaths. It appeared that they had to invade a few millionaires’ privacy, yet again.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7- No ofFENCE</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello, little late, sorry for that. Hope you will like it (please leave a comment, if you don´t like something, so it can be improved) <br/>Enjoy :*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Fun fact, when a person decides to visit a rich neighbourhood in LA, they do not take into consideration the unfulfillment and dissatisfaction with one’s life achievements. The houses seemed even larger (if they weren't shielded from human eye by various species of exotic plants) and the fences were even higher and more massive. Percy, who was only used to living in a small apartment in New York City and his own cabin in the camp (which was more like a small beach house than a proper living arrangement),  couldn’t help but admire the huge mansions, which probably accommodated no more than one or two people (he and all his closest friends could fit in one of these and still leave room for a random spirit of Californian wealth or something). <br/>They were slowly reaching the final destination and Percy could already see the gold components on the gate creating a familiar pattern of Greek meanders, acanthus leaves, swirling around a gigantic iron sculpture of a sun. <br/>“Oh, yes,” Percy voiced his thoughts: “I can see why it would be difficult to find; it indeed is very inconspicuous.” He didn’t understand how gods could be so extra! Jeez, they certainly did NOT need to hide from any form of danger, as we had all witnessed in the last 5 years.  They stopped standing in front of the monstrosity, indecisive of their next actions.<br/>“Sooo, what do we do now? Should we climb over this? Or should we ring? Chant a magic formula?” proposed the son of Poseidon.<br/>“Let me see if I have something useful in my backpack.” stated Grover, already searching in his big leather bag. “Aaah, a bottle of instant mist, I hope it's not empty. Comes handy to be around Hephaestus kids, it is the latest version, this should last longer.”  <br/>“Great idea,” Jason stated: “truly excellent, one question though, how is THAT gonna deceive the freaking god of the Sun?” <br/>Grover shut up after that: “You know, some would say, if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. And for your information, we don’t need to deceive the god himself, only the creatures guiding the house.”<br/>“Ooh, that makes sense.” sighed Percy. Grover sprayed the thing on the three of them, making them escape the eyes of a potential human passerby. Percy grabbed the pickets of the gate ready to start climbing, but Jason caught him by the hem of his shirt.<br/>“Dude, I can fly, no need to do this. You will just hurt yourself. That would be a shame, imagine: The Hero ends up being pierced by a fence after all he had done.”<br/>“Excuse me, do you not deem me capable enough to climb over a stupid fence after ‘all I have done’?” Percy even put his hands up in the air, indicating quotation marks, “I’m fine.”<br/>“Alright then,” Jason laughed a little while putting his hands up as well only he did it to show surrender: “Grover,” he turned around, facing his ungulate friend, “shall we?” Jason outstretched his hand waiting for Grover to grab onto it.<br/>“Yes, we shall,” Grover bowed before him and held onto his hand while fluttering his eyelashes.<br/>“Okay, you can drop it now,” Percy said in a defensive voice: “We’ve got limited time so why don’t we get this over with and once we’re back in our hotel room, you can play Cinderella, sounds good?”<br/>Grover rolled his eyes: “Percy, stop sulking. We all remember that one time when you nearly decapitated yourself while trying to shave with Riptide. Or are you jealous that I get to touch your private pillow?” he wiggled his eyebrows.<br/>“A what?” Jason asked in confusion. <br/>“Nothing” said the other boys in union, Percy red in face and the satyr grabbing Jason´s hand. Jason shook his head and lifted from the ground, Grover hanging underneath like a huge key chain. <br/>After a few seconds, Jason was back, stretching his hand towards still slightly pink- faced Percy. As soon as their legs left the ground, Percy´s sweaty hand slipped out of Jason´s. Percy yelped and exclaimed: “THAT is not safe!”<br/>“I am really sorry man, your hand is so slippery. Let's do it this way,” Jason let out in-between heavy breaths. He pulled Percy up and to himself a bit (with only one hand, to Percy’s surprise). He wrapped one of his arms around Percy’s waist and circled Percy’s chest with the other to secure him. <br/>They safely landed in this….quite awkward embrace, with Percy just hanging out like a loose testicle out of a person’s underwear. Jason quickly let go once they put their feet on the ground, and they quickly stepped away from one another while they kept their eyes on the ground.<br/>Grover let out a loud laugh before he realized that they were on The property,, he widened his eyes and quickly covered his mouth with his hands.<br/>“Shhh,” Percy and Jason said simultaneously, their little moment back there forgotten.<br/>All three of them looked around to scan their surroundings; ‘Extra’ did not come even close to what they saw before them. <br/>Everything just screamed expensive: white walls, big french windows; trees, bushes and colourful flowers neatly arranged to highlight the poshness of this place. <br/>The boys sneaked around, looking for some easy entrance to the house, or indication of someone else being in the house. They came to the beautiful terrace with a spectacular view, a humongous pool and huge glass doors.<br/>A quiet wow escaped Percy's mouth and other boys were clearly fascinated as well, their mouths wide open. <br/>While Jason and Grover admired the garden and their surroundings Percy finally pointed out the obvious: “Uh, guys,” he waited for them to turn around to face him: “Isn’t the….lack of any kind of protection kind of...suspicious.” <br/>Both Jason and Grover finally looked around, this time ignoring the beautiful backyard and focusing on the silence that surrounded them. It was kind of disconcerting.<br/>“Doesn’t this seem a little too…..” Percy began to doubt the progression of their quest.<br/>“Please don’t say too easy,” Jason shook his head, not ready to accept defeat yet.<br/>“Why not though?” Both Percy and Jason looked at Grover disbelievingly: “Why can’t we do easy this time? For the love of all gods, let’s do easy!” Grover said with a hint of desperation apparent in his voice. <br/>“Okay, I doubt the mighty Apollo would hide the stick in his garden.” stated Jason and started scanning the building“Let's go look into the house. How do we break in?” <br/>“Eeeh, guys, I think the window is open.” Percy pointed at the big window slightly ajar,” this is DEFINITELY suspicious.” <br/>Grover appeared more and more agitated by the second as all signs pointed towards the possibility that this might very well be a trap: “Well...maybe...Apollo is just nice to his possible burglars.”<br/>“Yeah, or maybe there is a giant snake waiting for us to come inside and eat us.” Jason pointed out.<br/>“Hmm,” Percy rubbed his chin with his fingers: “Let me see which possibility I’ll accept as MY truth…” <br/>They sneaked through the window and their mouths dropped again. The interior was luxurious, every piece of furniture complemented the sunny theme. Walls were light yellow; long matte brown leather sofa, humongous TV with a newest play-station and other fancy objects Percy didn't know the name of and never thought he would see outside of the boujee magazines. No giant snakes around though (at least he did not notice).<br/>“Okay,” Percy stated after they overcame the initial shock: “I think my self-esteem has been kicked in the balls enough for today. Let’s go look for the thing.”<br/>Grover and Jason just nodded, still transfixed by all the bright colors around them. They walked around a bit, going through the kitchen and all the hallways, they looked through the downstairs bathroom.<br/>“You know,” Jason stopped in the hallway as they were about to go upstairs: “As much as I am enjoying the house tour, the lack of violence is kind of starting to freak me out. Are we sure this is it?” <br/>“Dude, have you seen the house?” Grover asked.<br/>“Yeah, but….it just doesn’t add up.” Jason said exasperatedly.<br/>Percy turned around to face both of them, he was already going up the stairs so he was a few inches taller than his friends: “It is not that simple, okay? We’ll go up,” he pointed to the floor above them: “And there will be an army of anti-moon children waiting for us to arrive so they can kick our asses only so we can flee at the last minute and defeatedly sit outside of this mansion with no plan B. Sounds good?” Percy explained, he was really fed up with the feeling of false security and his friend’s annoying banter. Of course, it was a trap, but there was no reason to stop every 5 seconds and point it out!<br/>Jason, who during Percy's monologue managed to climb the stairs, passed around the son of Poseidon and ruffled his hair.<br/>“Okay Mr. Angry Pants, don't need to be all fussy about it,” he said with a smile and reached the second floor. Only one of the countless number of doors were opened. <br/>“Someone really wants us to follow their intentions.” he said carefully creeping towards the open door, his weapon forming in the hand. They stepped into the room, Jason first, seemingly shielding the other two.<br/>The room looked too simple: white walls, ordinary looking furniture. Then Percy spotted the thyrsus  JUST LYING on the bed. <br/>“I'm gonna touch it.” he stated, reaching his hand. Jason quickly caught Percy´s hand, frowned and semi whispered, “ Grover do you feel anything?”<br/>“Not a thing, I don't know if i am broken, but it doesn't smell like Dionysus nor gives off a feeling.” <br/>Percy with his hand still captured, shrugged and grabbed the thyrsus with the other hand. As soon as his skin touched the object, his whole body froze. He managed to throw a terrified look on Jason, who instantly knew something was happening, and his vision went black.</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8- FAINTastic findings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello, big apologies for the late upload :( Hope someone is still reading this thing. Every kudos and comment are deeply appreciated.<br/>Enjoy :*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Suddenly, Jason and Grover were deafened by a very prominent buzzing sound and it seemed like all the lights in the house had been switched to full brightness and were continuing to get brighter and brighter, hurting Jason’s and Grover’s eyes. This bizarre occurrence lasted only a few minutes before all went back to normal. Percy, however, did not. His lifeless body landed on the ground motionless. <br/>Percy's eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness. He didn't even get the chance to take a good look at the environment around him when he was startled by a warm voice: “ Oh hello Percy, I didn't expect to see you there” <em>Why does everyone say that to me every time they see me?</em> <br/>Apollo was smiling, waves of happiness rolling off of him in a similar way that Percy was used to in Jason. It was kind of reassuring. <br/>Percy jumped up as if a lightning had struck him (weird comparison, I know) and quickly looked around, trying to find the Riptide. It took a lot longer than it should have to realise that his giant sword was nowhere to be seen. While he was searching for his weapon, he noticed that his surroundings had changed. He was still reminded how poor he really was by looking at all the stuff that Apollo had, but it no longer held the ‘popstar’ vibe that the house he found the Thyrsus; this house (well...this room, Percy did not see much of the rest of the house) appeared cozier and less ‘bachelor’ looking. <br/>“Where are we? I mean, how did I get there?”<br/>Apollo glanced around. ”This is mine eerm, spring residence, I enchanted the thyrsus lookalike with an alarm spell, to meet whoever touches it and mock them because THEY. JUST. GOT. PRANKED!” He shouted triumphantly.<br/>“What?” questioned the demigod plainly, not getting the prank part.<br/>“How is this prank? And again how did I get there?”<br/>“Well, we are in your subconsciousness, the spell works as a straight redirection to me, so welcome in my house. Also it means that your mission is useless because you did not find the object of that drunk prick,” while Apollo gloated about being superior to everyone...once again, Percy looked around for some clues that would help him locate Apollo’s whereabouts: “You may search every inch of the surface of the Earth, but you shall never find me!” <br/>Apollo held out his hand, in which appeared the real Thyrsus. The god of Sun shook his hand from side to side, mocking Percy and their quest. <br/>Percy got bored really quickly so he decided to look out of the window, maybe something would give away his location. <br/>What he saw outside could possibly be the funniest thing that could have happened. There was a huge sign saying ‘WELCOME TO VANCOUVER!’ in huge letters, with the population number right beneath it. For the sake of his own joke and the possibility of humiliating Apollo he put on the finest ‘poker’ face he could master. <br/>“We’re in Vancouver.”<br/>Apollo stopped his victorious dance with one of his legs midair and his arms still up: “No, we’re not!” <br/>“Yeah, we are.”<br/>“No, we’re not.”<br/>Percy walked over to the window and pointed outside. The face Apollo pulled once he saw the sign, Percy swore he would fight Kronos all over again just to see that face of utter realisation of the idiocy that one can possess: “Yeah, we are.”<br/><em>Man, if we survive this, I’m getting that tattooed on my forehead.</em><br/>Apollo quickly pulled himself together and the scenery quickly began to change from cozy and snowy to one filled with sun and sun and well...he could not see much else; it seemed more like a desert than anything else: “That was simply a trick to confuse your senses to make you more confused than you already were, oh you stupid demigod. Did you think I would be so foolish as to let you see where I’d been hiding. HA!” <br/>Percy could swear he could see a drop of sweat falling down Apollo’s face, but of course, that would be impossible since gods didn’t sweat.<br/>“I see. And what now?” Percy sighed, feeling a little tired of the god´s bullshit.<br/>“What now?! You are asking me… oh, what now?” Apollo stopped in his tracks, thinking deeply and waving up and down with the stolen object, deciding what to do with this situation.<br/>“Are you really gonna move thyrsus over onto another place and continue your meaningless prank? Isn't it, like, a teeny bit petty, for a god?” Percy quickly implied.<br/>“It seems like it, doesn't it? It would be a pity if I left it here after all the effort I had put in this WHOLESOME prank,” the god of sun said, annoyed with the demigod´s lack of praise. “However I could... yeeeah THAT…” Apollo murmured to himself, a devilish grin spreading across his face.<br/>“Very well then, you have my word that I will leave this object here. Come get it.” <br/>Percy did not like the expression on Apollo’s face at all. What the hell could he do about it though?! With skepticism written all over his face he took a careful step back: “Is that it? That’s ...not what was supposed to happen at all…” <br/>“What do you mean?” Apollo let out a friendly laugh: “I’m always this generous and I ALWAYS play fair game….everyone knows it.”<br/>Apollo spread out his arms as if gesturing to all the people that were supposed to know that, even though nobody was with them so it seemed to have lost its point, to be honest. <br/>“Sooo, can I go?” asked Percy, shifting awkwardly.<br/>“Oh yeah, totally. Bye Perseus, see ya!” waved the god and everything went black. <em>Fucking again. I hate my life.</em> <br/>Muffled voices hit his eardrums and Percy slowly opened his eyes. He was lying on a humongous king- sized bed; Jason sitting next to him shouting at Grover: (who was apparently not in the room caring for his best friend. <em>I wonder what is the reason for his betrayal.</em>) “ Not up yet! Maybe we should call an ambulance or something?” <br/>“No ambulance man, I am not fond of needles.” Percy protested looking at his companion.<br/>Jason jumped and let out some kind of noise highly resembling a squeak of a guinea pig. <em>Aww cute</em>. Percy grinned as he sat up, his head slightly spinning from the weird, uh, astral projection thing. <br/>“Dude, finally!” Jason quickly put his arms around Percy in a very tight (in Percy’s opinion, not that he was complaining) embrace.<br/>“What happened?”<br/>Jason nervously scratched behind his ears: “We don’t really know. You touched the thyrsus-thingie and then you passed out…..you were unconscious for like an hour. We were worried it was some kind of curse, Grover even suggested that one of us should kiss you to wake you up.” Jason let out an uncomfortable laugh.<br/>“Yeah, good thing I woke up when I did.” <br/>Before any of them could say another word to make this situation even more uncomfortable, Grover burst through the double door entrance to the huge bedroom.<br/>“Is he up? Is he breathing? Did you kiss him?...I mean...did you try mouth to mouth?” Grover let all this out in one breath.<br/>“Dude, calm down,” Percy said defensively: “There was no mouth to mouth of any kind...between anyone!” <br/>Grover´s eyebrows untangled and he sat on the bed, hands full of spoons and various beverage cans.<br/>“So this was more important than your dying best friend? A SNACK??” <br/>“You weren't dying, drama queen, I was just… scanning the house further for any possible threats. And besides, Jason was with you the whole time. You seemed perfectly fine the last time you and Jason were sharing bed together,” implied the satyr winking (very poorly) at Percy. <br/>“Okay, let's move on shall we?” said Jason, his ears slightly pink,” The thyrsus was obviously a scam, we have nothing. Now what?” <br/>“We go Vancouver.” said Percy in a “ duh obvious” tone.<br/>“What? Why?” Asked the other two in union, with identical confused looks. (Which somehow had become a trademark with Percy proposing, basically, anything.)<br/>“That’s where Apollo is,” Percy was waiting for them to get it as if they had been there with him.<br/>“What the hell are you on about?” <br/>“I was with Apollo and I saw a sign and there was snow and….and”<br/>Well, explaining was not Percy’s strong suit.<br/> “Wait, wait, rewind!” Jason stood up from the bed and crossed his arms on his chest: “Where were you? I mean...other than this bed and...well unconscious.” <br/>“I was..” Percy looked around the room to see he was once again in the sunny, hot mansion in LA: “I was in Vancouver….I think...I saw a sign that said we were in Vancouver.... The point is that Apollo pretty much admitted that we were there AND he gave me his word that he will leave the real thyrsus there. In conclusion, we´ll go there, take the stick and FINALLY move on with our life.” <br/>“But don't you think that it could be a trap? I don't know, man, I think we shouldn't go.” Grover objected, eyebrows once again furrowed.<br/>“Well, maybe, a god's promise is not a reliable assurement, however what else can we do?”<br/>“Percy is right. We have to trust Apollo, we have resources to finance the necessities of our journey provided by camp, practically almost the whole summer for this ridiculous quest and Dionysus is counting on us. We  can afford to go to Canada.” Jason finished his whole monologue standing, positioned in an energetic pose, similar to Superman´s. <br/>Grover sighed outvoted: “ Okay, okay, your energy of a married power couple is too strong for my poor self. So, how do we get there? By plane?”<br/>“NOT IN A MILLION YEARS! My hair almost went gray again after the stress and anxiety. I SWEAR I will literally break your hands now. Plus I dont think Zeus wants me under his nose for the second time in this short span.” vehemently argued Percy, turning pale upon the thought of reliving his deeply rooted fear.<br/>“Understood, no planes. We could get there by a ship actually. Vancouver does have a harbor.” Grover tried to make everyone as comfortable as they possibly could get on a journey like this and with Percy flying for several hours, it only seemed fair to put Jason in the water a bit too.<br/>“Well….I mean, I don’t think that would be the safest option considering the fact that…..well” Jason stuttered a bit, trying to find a good bullet-proof reason to not go in the vicinity of water (mainly salt water) <br/>“Considering the fact that YOU made me go on a plane and caused me to have multiple organ failures from the stress…”<br/>“That is a bit of an overreaction…” Grover tried to interject but Percy held out his hand to silence him.<br/>“Stop trying to invalidate my trauma please! Thank you!” Percy turned back to face Jason again: “I think that it’s actually a good idea….the boat thing,” <br/>“I mean, I wouldn’t dare to compromise our quest in such a way that would be…” Jason seemed to have lost himself in his own argument.<br/>“Compromise ….yeah, I don’t think that should be a problem, my dad is a welcoming guy…”<br/>“Yeah but I mean...ehm”<br/>“Okay I don’t have all day so while Jason tries to make a solid argument, we should go and get a boat of some sort...I guess.” Grover said as he went to pick their stuff up from the ground and headed for the door. Percy jumped out of bed and ran right after him, giving Jason a reassuring slap on the shoulder as he passed him.  Jason, as if still lost in his own arguments, kept opening and closing his mouth like a fish, still holding  onto the last thread of hope that he would not have to get on a boat. <br/>“You know, I can wait here in case Apollo changes his mind and returns….” Jason called after them. <br/>“Jason, if I need to, I will kick your ass all the way to that harbor if you try to say one shitty reason why we shouldn’t go.” Percy shouted back.<br/>Jason, not willing to risk that, quickly ran after them. He forgot to close the doors after him, which turned out to not be such a problem as they closed themselves after the two demigods and their hairy friend exited….<em>The Crib.</em></p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9- a FERRY friendly ally</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello, here is a new chapter, sorry for taking too long. Hope, you having a good time.<br/>Enjoy :*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Once they got to the harbour, the first thing they noticed were the rows and rows of people waiting to get onto their holiday ships.<br/>“I guess we got pretty lucky, we can just sneak in with one of the groups.” said Percy as they inconspicuously walked along the deck, looking for a convenient way in.<br/>“Speak for yourself,” mumbled Jason as he, even though not yet on the boat, seemed to be getting seasick. <br/>“Jason, remember this feeling, the emotions, the unnatural realness of the situation for the next time you force me to go by a plane, okay?” said Percy caringly and flashed his companion with an understanding smile. Jason rolled his eyes and hunched his shoulders. Grover happily jumped around their group: “Boys I am so looking forward to this! Just us, hanging out, enjoying the cruise without any responsibility for a few days. It's like a holiday!” <br/>The son of Zeus looked more and more anxious as they got closer to board the giant ship. <br/>“Do you guys really think they won't notice three additional people on the board?”<br/>Percy threw his arm over Jason´s shoulders and said reassuringly: “We´ll go with the flow.”<br/>“Oh thank you for this beautiful piece of advice, man. All my doubts disappeared.” Jason sighed but let Percy side hug him.<br/>“Okay, if I had known that all it took for you to be this happy, I would have taken you on a holiday to the Bahamas and not on a quest to get some stick back to a drunk man.” Jason said with a smile on his face; it was a very nervous smile and he could not hide the fear of death you could see in his eyes.<br/>Percy stepped away and jumped around Jason with Grover all happy and not at all worried about his own sick getting on his favourite T-shirt, unlike Jason.<br/>“Yeah, maybe too happy” Jason murmured under his breath: “Guys,” he called after Grover and Percy who were a few feet ahead of him: “maybe we should try the flying thing again, I mean….it was pretty safe and relatively fast unlike a boat, which could take days and days….”<br/>“You still on about that?” Percy stopped and turned around to face Jason: “Man, grow a pair of ovaries and get on the freaking boat!”<br/>“Isn’t it ‘grow a pair of balls’?” Grover chimed in.<br/>“Well clearly,” Percy began to clarify his thought process: “those aren’t working so....we gotta try some new options.” <br/>Jason gave him the finger and sighed while now quietly accepting his fate.</p><p>The ticket control lady seemed to be a strict person as she carefully analysed each and every ticket and group the passes belonged to. Now even Percy looked nervous as they tried to mingle in the large noisy clump of people. <br/>“Everything is alright, you can go. Enjoy your cruise,” said the lady and Percy mentally exhaled, and shot Jason a “see I told you” look.<br/>“Wait, hold on you three! Madam, do they belong to your group?” the ticket lady exclaimed suddenly and the leader of the group shook her head in disagreement. <br/>“So, you tried to sneak in for free? That is not very nice of you!” the worker´s expression was cold and deadly. She was noticeably beautiful, her waist long, coral-red hair framing her figure, rosy cheeks and plump lips, big ocean-blue eyes. <br/>Percy felt like he was back in middle school when he had ‘accidentally’ broken something for the tenth time and the teacher had caught him. <br/>“Well we were just…” Jason started but didn’t seem to be able to finish that sentence.<br/>You know, when you are on your hundredth quest to save the gods’ asses, you would think that you would be able to come up with a good excuse.<br/>“I mean…” Percy, once again, had to come to the rescue with another ...meaningless reason for why they had snuck in with the group.<br/>Suddenly, Grover’s eyes widened as he noticed something.<br/>The worker had a small pink starfish clipped in her hair, almost hidden under the waterfall of curls. <br/>“Excuse me, do you, by any chance, know Nereus?” he asked.<br/>“Grover, this is not the right time for your off topic que-” Percy started but the woman cut him off.<br/>“He is my father. Who is asking?” she said carefully, eyeing the boys.<br/>“My name is Grover, I am a satyr. This is Jason the son of Jupiter and that stupid blob is Percy, son of Poseidon,” the satyr introduced them and the woman´s eyes sparkled. “We need to get to Vancouver, because we are looking for a particular object related to Dionysus…”<br/>“Ooh my dears, why didn't you say it earlier? I'm Kymo, a nereid,” her gaze softened and she flashed them with a breathtaking smile, “we are basically a family, Percy and that means we help each other! Come on, we have a few free cabins, I will take care of everything, just act normal and board on. If someone asks you, you reserved last minute.” <br/>“Thank you very much!” exclaimed Percy genuinely, completely melted upon the niceness of his ehmm, relative? On the spur of the moment, Percy went up to her and hugged her. He was so relieved that they avoided another ‘airport situation’. <br/>Kymo was definitely surprised by such a prominent display of affection she stood still for a moment. <br/>“Okay okay, let’s not get overly friendly.” Jason said as he pulled Percy off Kymo and onto the boat.<br/>“Dude, what was that?” Grover nudged Percy’s arm. The son of Poseidon didn’t seem to realize what he’d done as he was still shaking from nerves. <br/>“I think that this was the nicest encounter with a fellow ´same kind as us´ person.” Jason said relieved, then he realized where they were and stiffened. <br/>“Should this be so bouncy? Why is it swinging? Is it tilting or is it just me? You know what, I think I will go by plane and we can meet up in Vancouver, okay? Jason blurted out, already turning and ready to flee. Just as he was about to make his first step, Percy caught his arm and with all the strength he could muster (Jason was strong as fuck okay?) turned Jason back around. <br/>The son of Jupiter had a big pout on his face which made him look like a giant baby; to be honest, that’s what he really was.<br/>“You are strangling my arm.”<br/>“Stop panicking, we are not splitting up, the boat is not tilting, this is normal. Now let's go find our cabin, shall we?” Percy started to walk towards the worker who was assigning the cabins, not letting go of Jason's arm. Grover, who was busy eating his snacks, rolled his eyes and called after them:” Hey love birds, wait for me!” <br/>Percy looked down at his hand around Jason’s arm, he realized how weird this must look and he quickly let go. He stepped away from Jason as well, just for good measure.<br/>Jason looked at Percy for a bit, lifted his eyebrows in a silent question, asking him if everything was okay. <br/>While they were having their private moment, Grover sighed and went around them, moving towards the desk. <br/>After they got their keys (no one really questioned them about anything) they went to put their stuff into the accommodation. There were three beds (thank god), one bunk bed and one normal bed, to be precise, very small bathroom, miniature wardrobe and one chair. Jason and Percy occupied the bunk bed and Grover was already sprawling on the other one. <br/>They didn’t even realize how tired they were until their bodies collided with the soft surface of the beds. <br/>The first person to open their eyes was Grover, already used to the snoring his best friend always provided his journeys with. He was kind of weirded out by the volume but he quickly realized that on this particular quest he had to deal with double the amount of the sense-numbing noise with Jason on board as well. He looked over to see his companions, half of Percy´s body dangling in the air from the upper bed and Jason asleep on the floor. Grover´s belly rumbled to announce the hunger. He jumped from the bed, grabbed his flute and blew in it, making a high-pitched noise, causing the other boys to jerk up from their beauty nap. Percy fell off the bed landing perfectly on Jason who yelped and hissed as Percy´s back collided with Jason´s chest. <br/>Grover burst out laughing while regretting not capturing this precious moment between three pals. <br/>Percy struggled to get back to his feet, kicking and hitting Jason in the process, sometimes in very valuable places. While he was trying to stand up, he tripped on one of Jason’s feet and fell down again, this time on Jason’s lower part of the body.<br/>“Dude…” Jason started but didn’t seem to have enough breath in him: “I could really throw you out into the ocean if I didn’t know you could call some sea-lovin’ back-up to kick my ass.” <br/>Percy was apologizing as he managed to finally stand up, cheeks red in embarrassment. <br/>“Ehm ehm, still here,” reminded Grover, “sorry to disturb, but I am hungry I could eat a whale… so let's find the dining room.”<br/>“Dude, you couldn't go alone and just leave us to sleep?” murmured Percy and helped Jason get up on his feet. <br/>“No, we are officially on our own little holiday cruise AND for free! Therefore we will do everything together! Also, I bet you are hungry too!” said Grover.<br/>“For your information, I am not!” grumbled the son of Poseidon and his stomach rumbled in disagreement.<br/>“Your body has betrayed you so much during this quest, hasn’t it?” Grover  laughed a little as if he had some inside joke only he was aware of.<br/>“What’s that supposed to mean?” Percy asked defensively.<br/>“Nothing nothing,” the satyr lifted his arms up in a ‘I surrender’ kind of way.<br/>“Alright, you can continue the banter on the way, now lead to where we need to go before my stomach catches up with my brain and I realise I’m in water and I won’t be able to eat a thing.” Jason was monouloging while walking out of the cabin, not waiting for either of them despite the fact that he didn’t know where they were supposed to go.<br/>“Shouldn’t we take some money or something?” Grover asked Percy as they were the only ones still in the cabin.<br/>“Bro, come on...this is a family ship. They know me.”<br/>“Yeah, I remember how you were this cool about it, when we first got onto the ship.”<br/>“Shut up!” Percy said quietly, walking out after Jason.<br/>Grover laughed and followed as well.</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10- What Goes Down Must Come Back Up</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello, long time no see. So sorry for not posting but hey eventually we got here :D<br/>Ignore the errors, enjoy the chapter</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s a wonder no one tripped over their jaws once they had taken a look at the dining hall. It smelled and looked even better than in their wildest dreams- oval-shaped tables dressed in fancy tablecloths, classical music seeping subtly from hidden speakers, and huge windows allowing natural light to shine right on the enormous buffet. The food though - that in itself deserves a special dose of appreciation; there was a separate section of tables, just for the huge amount of trays filled with all kinds of food (majority of which the boys couldn’t even name).</p>
<p>“Is this a mirage? Did I die?” asked Grover, eyes glowing with appreciation. </p>
<p>“I think we should behave like civilized human beings and start-” Jason didn't manage to finish his etiquette advice because the other two were already relocated, showing food down their throats while standing and putting more food on their plates. </p>
<p><em>If you can’t fight’em, join’em,</em> Jason thought as he shrugged his shoulders and ran after the boys to catch up, and boy, was there some catching up to do. Percy was filling 2 plates at the same time with salty and sweet things not really caring how mixed up they would get. Grover on the other hand seemed to resemble Homer Simpson as he always put a bit of the food in his mouth and then put the whole thing on a plate. </p>
<p>“This is unreal!” scoffed some old lady near them, horrifyingly watching their dining manners. </p>
<p>Jason shot an apologetic smile (which was admirable considering his full mouth was about to explode) and showed the boys to the empty table near them. <br/>After Percy finally satisfied his hunger, he leaned back on his chair and watched his companions. Grover didn't look like he was finishing his dinner, still stuffing his face and Jason was absently patting his abdomen unaware of his ketchup mustache.<em>How disgustingly adorable,</em> thought Percy and without thinking he grabbed a napkin and whipped the ketchup away. </p>
<p>Jason at first widened in surprise but then probably thought it was a joke and decided to ‘play along’ and raised his hand in the air in a very posh way. Percy realized what he was doing and quickly pulled his hand back. He looked at Grover and tried to laugh it off as a joke but as his eyes met Grover’s he could tell that he hadn’t been fooled. The satyr winked at him, wiggled his eyebrows, and laughed at reddening Percy then almost choked on a grilled shrimp. </p>
<p>“I think we are definitely cursed, judging by the number of people staring at us,” said Jason, seemingly ashamed of them.</p>
<p>“Doesn't matter to me. I can peacefully die now after this life-changing delicious experience,” the son of Poseidon shrugged and Grover nodded in agreement and engulfed the piece of food he had coughed out.</p>
<p>“So, now what? A quick stroll around the ship?” Jason suggested as the three walked out of the hall.</p>
<p>After about 10 minutes of walking, they still hadn’t made a full circle around the ship. Percy and Jason were walking in the front talking about whatever came to their minds (the topics varied from the amazing work that was done in both camps to achieve better communication and alliance to what their favorite pokemons were), Grover slowed down a bit about halfway through the walk, the other guys didn’t seem to mind much. The satyr kept slowing down while clutching his stomach, obviously in pain. However, it became a lot more difficult to ignore him once he doubled over the side of the ship and let what appeared to be most of the huge feast out into the sea. The boys turned around at the sound of someone throwing up; once they realized it was their friend they quickly ran to his aid (not that they wouldn’t try to do their best if it was a stranger throwing up….cough cough). The satyr was pale, almost green and his hair was sticking to his sweaty face. He opened his mouth in an attempt to communicate with the two but he rapidly turned around and continued letting go of his dinner. After a few seconds, he stopped and shot a miserable look at his friends.<br/>“I think I ate a little too much.”</p>
<p>“You don't say! I didn't notice-” Percy started but Jason elbowed him.</p>
<p>“Are you able to walk to our room?” the demigod asked and Grover tried to stand straight. His legs started to tremble.</p>
<p>“Jump on my back, I will carry you,” Jason ordered, the satyr was too weak to resist (and to be honest the idea of a free lift was quite appealing) so he did as he was told. </p>
<p>“I bet you are jealous that your hubby is giving me a piggyback,” whispered Grover hazily to Percy´s direction. Percy glared at him and a blush crept on Jason´s cheeks. </p>
<p>“Haha, funny,” Percy fake-laughed: “Did it hurt? Did the vomiting hurt?!” he asked a lot more aggressively than what was necessary.</p>
<p>“Alright alright, just joking, no need to get defensive on me,” Grover tried to raise his hands in an ‘I give up’ gesture, which probably caused a tiny imbalance in his already messed up system as he immediately demanded to be dropped so he could lean over the side of the ship once again. Percy and Jason were just watching his little goat tail swish from side to side as their friend once again couldn’t get control of his biological functions. </p>
<p>“Maybe we could go to the kitchen or something, or find a doctor…” Jason started to say but was interrupted by Percy.</p>
<p>“...and tell him what? ‘Heya doc! Would you spare us a moment and come to take a look at our goat friend?’” </p>
<p>“Well at least let’s get him to bed and bring him some tea or something if we can find it.”</p>
<p>Percy crossed his arms and passively replied: “When did we become one of those couples that are obsessed with their satyr?”<br/>Jason tried to stifle his laugh, probably to let Grover keep SOME of his dignity.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It took a while to bring the sick boy back to their room (they had to stop twice in order to avoid a messy accident on the board.) Finally, Jason collapsed on the bed and Grover already camped himself in the bathroom. Percy persuaded him into eating a piece of ambrosia to calm the upset stomach a little however it didn't really help and accompanied by nasty sounds Percy fled from the bathroom. </p>
<p>The soft knock on the door startled them, because who would be visiting them if not for some trouble they had caused? Percy opened the door and let out a relieved breath. <br/>“Jason be decent, Kymo is here!” he shouted exaggeratedly.</p>
<p>“Good evening boys, how are you enjoying your cruise so far?” she smiled at them warmly. </p>
<p>“It is going great really!” Percy said, “but we have, uhh, a small obstacle. Grover is constantly throwing up since the dinner.”</p>
<p>The smile left her face quicker than the food that had occupied Grover’s stomach a few moments ago. <br/>“UNBELIEVABLE!!!” the water nymph shouted in anger as she threw her arms up into the air in exasperation.</p>
<p>“We’re sorry! We’re sorry!” said Jason, trying and failing to put his arms around Kymo in an attempt to calm her down, which was probably a good thing considering the fact that she looked about ready to drown any living creature that crossed her path and contrary to popular belief, death wish was not very high on Jason’s priority list.<br/>The nymph angrily smacked off his hands clearly not having it and exclaimed: “Why do you demigods have to make everything so difficult?!” to underline her point she jabbed her small finger into Jason's chest.</p>
<p>“Hey! He is just seasick! It is not our fault!” Percy quickly jumped in with a lie to rescue his friend from the wrath of the nereid. </p>
<p>“You know, technically,...” the son of Poseidon continued. </p>
<p>Jason closed his eyes and took a deep breath for he knew that whenever Percy tried to improvise, it usually ended with someone’s butt being chased.<br/>“...you’re a sea nymph ...or something so...you should be in control of said sea so...in conclusion….this might actually be kind of….sort of...your fault!”</p>
<p>“That’s not helping, buddy,” Jason whispered, hoping to shut Percy up so they could get rid of the nereid.<br/>“I take it back then,” Percy added and then quickly turned around to go back to Grover once again leaving Jason to clean up the mess (figuratively of course, after this Jason would make sure that Percy would be the one cleaning Grover’s insides from the floor with his bare hands! )</p>
<p>Kymo breathed in sharply through her nose, her hair slightly resembling the snakes of medusa, swaying in the non-existing breeze. Her eyes sparkling with fury zeroed on Percy. She violently stomped in, shushing Jason who was halfway in the process of apologizing on behalf of Percy. <br/>The boys were frozen in place terrified of the sudden movement.<br/>With one swift move and eyes still locked on the son of Poseidon she smacked Grover on the head and suddenly he stopped assaulting the toilet, his skin got rid of the sickly green hue and with hazy eyes, he emerged from his spot. </p>
<p>“What did you do to him!!” shouted Percy and started backing away, further into the tiny bathroom.</p>
<p>“I am just trying to lessen what <em>he</em> did to <em>himself</em>!” exclaimed Kymo and sneered:” Do you think I did not notice three idiots with zero table manners and a satyr feeding the fish with his digested dinner not five minutes later?!” </p>
<p>“SEE?!?!?! We fed the fish!!” the pride in Percy’s voice should not have been as prominent as it was, “I bet, majority of your guests is not that considerate.”</p>
<p>Kymo went to execute what appeared to be a violent attack against Percy before Jason blocked her path, which was harder than it should have been. She took a deep breath, trying to regain her calm and joyous appearance. She was very unsuccessful in this task as her psychopathic smile did more to freak out the rest of the bathroom occupants rather than to calm them down. </p>
<p>“Dear cruise participants, I advise you to fix this issue as the damage you have caused may be charged later, at the end of the trip. If the problem is not resolved by tomorrow morning, you may experience some form of discomfort as you will be tied to the back of the ship and painfully dragged through the water until we reach our destination,” after this rehearsed speech which the other occupants of the room weren’t sure in what other situations she could use, she turned around and swiftly left the room. <br/>Percy, Jason, and Grover were left speechless as the door of their cabin loudly shut behind Kymo. Satyr opened his mouth and yawned swaying a little. The other boys shot him a wary glance suddenly aware of the magically improved state of their companion.</p>
<p>Upon seeing their reaction Grover stretched out, sat on the toilet, and with a sigh explained:” Don't worry I'm not possessed or anything. She just… kinda... took nausea away? She is a nereid, ya know, can calm the sea and all that jazz. But I think it's only temporary, I can feel the bile rising,” he sighed again and leaned back, head resting on a white tiled wall. “ What a fluke right? Food poisoning on the first day of our super cool cruise.” </p>
<p>“I think we’d better make sure it won’t be the last one,” Jason made sure to remind them. Percy put his hands on his hips and sighed defeatedly: “Why can’t we ever have a nice trip without someone threatening to kill or maim us in some way?!”</p>
<p>“So what now?” said Grover through gritted teeth as he tried to keep whatever was left of his dinner right where it was supposed to be. Jason and Percy looked at each other, trying to think of something that would keep them nice and dry in their comfortable cabin. </p>
<p>After about 5 minutes of pointless staring, Percy bent down and helped Grover to his feet to get him into bed. <br/>“He needs liquids. And ambrosia,” said Jason trailing after them. “I´m afraid that no solid piece of food can be ingested without going right back out, magic or not,” whined satyr as he was laying on the lower bunk bed with Percy tucking him in. </p>
<p>“Who would’ve thought that children throwing up their insides would be your calling, Jackson” the son of Jupiter couldn’t help but tease his companion. </p>
<p>Percy stood up from Grover’s side and walked towards Jason with a small smile playing on his lips. When he arrived at Jason’s side, he stopped to playfully punch Jason in the arm. The latter dramatically covered his wound with his other hand. They laughed awkwardly while neither was yet aware of the tension slowly building around them. They stood like that for a moment, behind his glasses Jason´s pupils were diluted, eyebrows slightly furrowed in confusion, small mole right under his left eye. Grover abruptly snored and interrupted whatever the two boys were having. Percy cleared his throat and to save himself from a wave of awkward silence he blurted out: “ Nice glasses, nerd.” </p>
<p>“Umm... okay, thanks? Not that I have been wearing them since last year,” the blond-haired boy snorted, clearly confused but upon hearing the satyr whimper out in his sleep Jason´s  smile faltered, “We should probably…” Pointing his finger in Grover’s direction, Jason slowly stirred the conversation to the problem at hand.</p>
<p>“Yeah, yeah,” Percy took a step back and took a deep breath while looking at the ground. He felt deep compassion for his friend because he knew the pain of disturbed digestion too well, it had been many times when he had eaten way too much food while Gabe had not been in the house so he could eat all he had wanted. Sally would make a bed out of their old couch, turn on The Gilmore Girls and make her son a tea that was almost magical for his upset stomach. <em>Ahh good ol´ times.</em> <br/><em>If only my mom was here, she’d be able to get Grover back on his hooves in a heartbeat.</em></p>
<p>
  <em>If only….</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>If only…</em>
</p>
<p>Jason was pulled out of his own thoughts by what appeared to be Percy having a stroke, if the violent shaking of Jason’s arm and facial expression which, when it came to Percy, usually meant a brilliant idea which normally resulted in near-death or that Percy was having diarrhea. Either way, Jason was not willing to take the risk.<br/>“What is happening?” </p>
<p>“Duuude, maan!!!” Percy completely ignored the question and kept abusing the other boy's arm.</p>
<p>“Come on, use the words, Percy. I know you can do it.” </p>
<p>The son of Poseidon snapped out of his trance and rolled his eyes, his hands still clutching Jason´s limb. “Oh shut it, no nice words for someone who YET AGAIN saved the situation?” </p>
<p>“You didn't do anything.” <br/><em>Oh man, we’re really going down ‘the dying route’,</em> Jason thought bitterly.</p>
<p>“I CAME UP WITH AN IDEA!” Percy yelled as if it should have been obvious.</p>
<p>“OKAY, BUT WHAT’S THE IDEA?!” Jason tried to yell back in an equal level of excitement.</p>
<p>“We’ll call my mom!” this time Percy wore a proud smile as if he came up with the solution to the Hodge conjecture. </p>
<p>“Oh….wait...what?!”</p>
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